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All week I’ve restrained from making goofy jokes to alleviate my nervousness that Jacksonville wouldn’t respond to a black and white Shakespeare film directed by a man best known for Sci-Fi Soap Opera mashup television shows. You know, “This film had better turn out to be Much Ado About Something,” et cetera.

But here we are at D-Day (Do-Day?) with some fantastic crowds and I’m so comfortable now that I’m naming pizzas after the movie. I present for your viewing and salivating pleasure our special this week, the Much Ado About Pizza!! Fresh mozzarella (or not, see below…), artichoke and basil…

Here’s the fantastic part though: the pizza in these photographs is topped with our brand new, long awaited NOTzarella! Yeah, we totally serve this pizza with big glops of fresh mozzarella for our dairy loving friends but for the vegan, lactose intolerant, or just plain adventurous crowd we are delighted to offer our new house-made cashew based, non-dairy NOTzarella. Can you tell how much I love typing that? NOTzarella?

Alas, word play abounds at this, the cavernous theatre of light and shadow. Isn’t that what The Bard would say? Or maybe simply, “Nom nom.”

“Naches” is a yiddish word that means pride, but not just any pride: the special kind of pride that a parent feels over his or her child’s achievement. I’m wondering if my peeps have a word for the feeling of seeing a movie I’ve been looking forward to, but on our own screen, in our own theatre. Can I just call it naches? Thanks, Bubbeleh.

THE SKIN I LIVE IN opens Friday, January 6th with showtimes at 4:30 and 10:00. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO continues at 1:30 and 7:00.

Just yesterday we had a great meeting with the folks over at Sweet Pete’s in Springfield. Many patrons have noticed that we’re creating our menu slowly and thoughtfully and this partnership is our newest effort on that front. We chose to work with Sweet Pete’s because they make some of the best candy I’ve ever tasted and of course they make it right here in town. They also focus their attention — like we plan to do — on using the most natural and high quality ingredients available. Plus they have the cutest freaking store ever.

After an utterly grueling tasting session (the most fun I’ve had since those angels over at Bold City stopped by with growlers for us to test out) we settled on milk and white chocolate bars, sea salt caramels (!), peanut butter meltaways, and — to tie in with our citrusy logo — orange blossom chocolate pieces.

This only makes our concession stand MORE dangerous, especially with the recent addition of wasabi peas, roasted almonds, and delicious Tokyo Mix to the roster. Check it out this weekend.

And our pizza oven just got delivered!!! More to come on the installation of the kitchen soon…

We’re hearing nothing but love for THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO from customers and critics alike, so please do drop in for a screening this week for some (slightly dark) holiday fun and lots of snowy Swedish landscapes that will make you forget for a few hours that we live in Florida.

Screenings through this week are:

12:15, 3:30, 7:00 and 10:00PM

Also getting rave reviews is our intermission slug, a cute tidbit Tim picked up somewhere along the line. We splice the 35mm film strip right in between reels and I’m proud to say it’s just at the perfect moment to run to the restroom or top off your drink. People ask if it’s something we’ll do for every film, but we plan to reserve that five minute break for our features that edge past the two hour mark.

And one nice lady told me today that our preshow alone is worth the admission price! Here’s the clip that made her Christmas merry and bright (and blue).

Showtimes tonight, Sunday the 18th, are at 7:00 and 9:30. I can imagine spending the day finishing up holiday shopping, checking in for a film, and then heading out for luminaria in our lovely ‘hood. Lars, Kirsten and Charlotte put you in just the right festive mood.

By the way, I learned that Penelope Cruz was originally slated to play Justine, the role that Kirsten Dunst so perfectly plays. Her performance is one of the highlights of the film for me. When she’s off the wall, when she’s in the deepest of depressions, when she’s delivering quips that make her sister feel like a total idiot, and especially in her newfound calm during an impending disaster it’s hard to imagine anyone else on the screen. Her grounded humor when things are over the top is an important part of that movie for me. What did you think?

That’s what Tim says about DRAGONSLAYER, anyhow. I am truly jazzed to see this film, which is a portrait of Josh “Skreech” Sandoval, an incredibly amusing dude who spends all of his time surreptitiously draining swimming pools and skateboarding in them. A friend who knows this character told me about a time when Skreech wanted to avoid further injuring his broken hand while skating in a big competition, and had the brilliant idea of holding a Barbie doll in the hand with the cast on it. It’s funny to imagine this guy skating, falling, and holding up the doll like a trophy.

You’ll only have one day to catch it, so cancel whatever entirely less fun thing you have going on tomorrow.

Many thanks to those of you have visited to catch a film since our soft opening December 9! I met folks who have been following this project since its inception back in August as well as the surprising number of people who walked in off the street, knowing nothing about the renovations. This Christmas I don’t need a present, I’ll just be happy with our flashy marquee.

We’ve changed a lot about the theatre, but one of the most frequent observations from moviegoers has been how impressed they are by the improvements to the sound. In its previous incarnation a lack of soundproofing, poor placement of speakers, and other calibration and maintenance issues made the 5 Points Theatre a less than ideal place to watch a film. Playing a gangster movie featuring machine gun fights alternating with whispered conversation required employees to monitor the projection booth, turning the sound up and down as needed to avoid blowing out eardrums or impossible to decipher dialogue. Snapping my fingers in the empty auditorium sounded practically booming.

Tim’s description of hanging acoustic foam in the balcony was fun. He used a spray adhesive to hang the panels and was skeptical that the treatment would make the difference we wanted it to. As he hung them, though, he said that he knew it was making an impact as the sound of the bead shaking in the aerosol can would get softer and softer as he hung up each piece.

I feel like Melancholia is the perfect film to showcase these upgrades. The sound of the impending apocalypse with the sweeping Wagner prelude is pretty moving… though I might be still swept up in the whole “opening-our-own-theatre” thing.

It also is such an awfully nice movie to look at. If you’ve seen the film on your computer while eagerly awaiting our opening do yourself a favor and check it out on our new screen. It is a totally different experience, and I promise it won’t disappoint.

Melancholia will continue through Sunday the 18th, then we take a day off (the last for a long time to come) to celebrate with some special supporters and prepare for the opening THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO on Tuesday, 12/20 with screenings at 7PM and 10PM. Showtimes every day of the week thereafter will be at 12:15, 3:30, 7:00 and 10:00.

Come experience Melancholia before it closes, and until then swing by and take a picture with our very first standee!!!